By Roy, founder Last updated 18/08/2026
"Sugar free" sounds like one claim. On an Australian label it's actually three different claims, each with its own threshold, and a fourth word people assume is a claim that isn't one at all. If you've ever stood in an aisle wondering why one product says "sugar free" and another says "no added sugar" for what looks like the same amount of sugar, this is why.
Is "sugar free" a real legal category?
Yes, and it's narrower than the name suggests. Under Schedule 4 of the Food Standards Code, the "free" descriptor for sugar requires the food to meet the low sugar conditions: no more than 5g of sugars per 100g for a solid food, or 2.5g per 100mL for a liquid. It isn't a promise of zero sugar. It's a ceiling, and the ceiling is set low enough that a trace amount, from the food's natural ingredients or otherwise, still clears it.
That matters because a lot of people read "sugar free" as "contains no sugar molecules whatsoever." Legally it means "at or under the low sugar threshold," which is a different, checkable number.
How is that different from "no added sugar"?
"No added sugar" is a separate descriptor with its own conditions under the Schedule 4 sugar row. Two things have to be true: the food can't contain sugar as an added ingredient, and the finished product has to sit under a 10g per 100g ceiling. It's a claim about what went into the product, not just what the final number reads.
So a product can carry "no added sugar" while still holding meaningfully more sugar per 100g than a "sugar free" product, because the two thresholds aren't the same and they're answering different questions. One is about a manufacturing choice (did anyone add sugar), the other is about a compositional limit (how much sugar is actually in there, full stop). A food can legitimately carry both descriptors if it clears both bars, or just one.
What about "unsweetened"?
This is the one that trips people up, because it isn't really about sugar at all. "Unsweetened" describes the absence of any sweetening agent, and that includes intense sweeteners like stevia, monk fruit extract or thaumatin, not just sugar. A product can be genuinely sugar free and still not be able to call itself unsweetened, because it's sweetened with something that isn't sugar. If a label uses both "sugar free" and "unsweetened" for a product that contains an intense sweetener, that second word is doing more than the ingredients support.
Why does the same product sometimes get called both, sometimes neither?
Because "low sugar," "sugar free," "no added sugar" and "unsweetened" are four separate conditions, and a formulator can hit some without hitting others. A drink sweetened heavily with an intense sweetener and zero actual sugar can be sugar free but not unsweetened. A product with a small amount of natural fruit sugar might miss the sugar free threshold but still qualify for no added sugar, because nothing was added on top of what the ingredients already carried.
The practical read for a shopper: check the nutrition information panel's sugars line yourself rather than trusting the front-of-pack word alone. The panel has to show grams of sugars per 100g and per serve, and that number is what the "free" and "no added" claims are actually measured against. If the front of pack says one thing and the panel tells a different story, the panel wins.
How Settl sits against these
Settl is a sleep and hydration powder, not a food built to court a sugar claim, but the numbers happen to be worth showing as a worked example. It carries 0.1g of sugars per 100g, well under the 5g per 100g solid-food threshold for "sugar free," and there's no added sugar as an ingredient either, so it clears both descriptors on the numbers. It isn't sold as unsweetened, because it carries a small amount of thaumatin, an intense sweetener, for the passionfruit flavour, which is itself a natural flavour rather than an artificial one. More on why that word specifically gets used, and why "unsweetened" doesn't, is in our thaumatin explainer.
Read the label, not the front of pack
None of this is about catching brands out. It's that "sugar free" and "no added sugar" and "unsweetened" are precise, separate conditions, and once you know the thresholds you can check any label in about ten seconds using the sugars line on the nutrition panel. That's a faster answer than trusting whichever word happened to fit on the front of the pack.
This article explains how the labelling rules work in plain English. It isn't legal advice, and if a specific product's compliance matters to you, the nutrition information panel and Food Standards Australia New Zealand's own guidance are the primary sources. For the wider picture on how Australian supplement and food labels work, see the Australian sleep supplement guide.
Settl is the nightly sleep powder behind this blog. One scoop in cold water before bed, built to get you to sleep faster, wake less at 3am, sleep deeper and wake up refreshed. No melatonin. Seven actives, every dose on the label. Packed in Sydney, in a TGA-licensed GMP facility. Start For $69.99, then $89.99 a month, inc. GST. Cancel, pause or skip any time. Or buy a single tub, $99. One-time order. Nothing renews.
Cheers, Roy